When we quickly compare freelancing with regular full time jobs, freelancing may sound synonymous to living carefree life like hippies because freelancing doesn’t have any rules and regulations and you are your own boss.
Rather, in research you will find quite the contrary, that is, freelancing requires lots of self discipline and regulations to withstand tough situations. Here are 10 divine rules to help freelance web designers get through any situation.
You shall always sharpen, enhance and prove your web design skill sets
Irrespective of your work experience, you need to sharpen your skill sets regularly. When you apply for a regular job, the process usually involves a series of interviews and you can walk away with a confirmation letter. The process may not be that easy in freelancing. You cannot afford to bask in glory just by merely stating you have so and so skill sets, you have to prove yourself. For that, you have to have a demo project demonstrating your skill sets.
This is particularly important for web designers because freelance employers prefer to look at websites you have designed rather than listen to theories. Therefore, you always need to sharpen your skill sets, enhance them, and prove you are worthy enough to take a project.
You shall do what you are good at
Literally, the term freelance means self-employed and work on any assignment. But, it would be good for you if you choose jobs that are relevant to your skill sets. This is purely a personal choice and depends on your financial needs. The idea is the more you focus on your skill sets, the better you can shape it up well over a period. If you have good HTML, PHP and Mysql skills, then taking jobs related to your skill sets is far better than taking irrelevant jobs. Moving back and forth between various technologies will make you jack of all but master of none.
You shall define your work policies beforehand
Irrespective of your field of work, you need to define your work policies like working time, delivery schedule, payment mode, etc before you start your project. This is particularly important for freelancers, because if you don’t convey your rules at the beginning of a project you might end up losing in the end. In the case of regular jobs, you need to bother only about completing your task and not about raising invoices. When it comes to freelancing, not only you need to evaluate your client, but also define how you are going to work and when the payment has to be made.
You should not procrastinate between works
As a freelancer, you need to have your own schedule and work steadily towards your project’s delivery date. Planning beforehand will save you a lot of time and energy, and will also help you finish a project easily without compromising any of your personal commitments. This requires enough self-discipline, as freelancers could be tempted to spend more time on unwanted things like browsing, chatting with friends, etc.
You shall be ready to accept and explore new challenges
If you are full time PHP programmer, then your work will be mostly related to PHP. This rule doesn’t hold for freelancing. You might very well put your skill sets as HTML, Photoshop designing, PHP, etc. But, a client might ask you to come up with design documents with elaborate UML diagrams for a web designing project. This means you cannot always expect to find work matching your skill sets exactly. You also need to learn to handle all the stages of a software development cycle efficiently.
You shall not overburden yourself
Programming languages and the needs of the market keep evolving, and you might be tempted to learn many technologies at a time, or do multiple projects in parallel. This kind of approach may not help you in the long run. By stressing yourself too much, you might end up losing what you already do well. So you need to strike a balance and allocate time for exploring new things.
You shall cultivate good work ethics
You can just be in pajamas and complete your work. The downside is, you will feel sleepy all the time, and you may not feel like you are working seriously. Sometimes, the way we dress conditions our mood and mind. Irrespective of where you work, if you dress properly, then you are certain to sense clarity in your mind and you will be able to concentrate better. Self-discipline always has only one direction; it will help you move higher and higher.
You shall find out your rate of productivity
Your rate of productivity is directly proportional to the knowledge you have in your skill sets. This means you cannot squeeze too much or work too little. You need to find your rate of productivity and define your work schedule accordingly. If you try to overestimate or under estimate your work experience, you might end up wasting your time and delay your delivery schedule.
You shall learn to value your freedom of choice
Freelancing gives a lot of freedom when compared to regular jobs. You can enjoy the full benefits of freelancing only if you learn to value the freedom freelancing provides. In a regular full time job, you won’t have the freedom to reject a job or take a work of your choice; you are bound by rules and regulations, whereas in freelancing you can choose any projects and deny whatever you don’t like. You need to understand the value of being able to make choices and it is highly important as you progress in freelancing. This is because generally we tend to lose things when we forget their values.
You shall own responsibility for your work
When it comes to freelancing, you interact with people from all over the world. Irrespective of the nature of the people you meet in the freelancing world, if you cultivate the habit to own responsibility for all your actions and keep your records clean, you might very well be on the right path to building a satisfying career.
If you think that regular jobs offer more protection than freelance jobs, then you need to remember that growth and progress in regular jobs sometimes depends on under whom you work. Whereas freelancing removes lots of such bottlenecks, and all you need to do is keep yourself motivated and focus on developing your skills.
About the author
Alia Haley is a blogger by profession. She loves writing on technology and autos. Beside this she is fond of fancy accessories. She is a tech freak and loves to write on her sites cellphonebeat and Gizmowatch.
